Interestingly, the only batting category that shows as a strong indicator of post-season success is batters’ strikeouts — the one category that sabermetricians have long called meaningless. I initially didn’t consider this alarming, because HR and K are highly negative-correlated; the players who knock a lot of balls over the fences also whiff more than their share of the time. So strikeouts and home runs would have to balance, I thought; once you know how poorly homers show up on the list, it’s not additionally surprising that contact hitting shows up so high.

But then I looked at the data, and while strikeouts and home runs are strongly related for individuals, that’s not the case for teams; the team with more home runs than its opponent struck out more often only 33/63 times (another way to put this: the correlation between home runs and strikeouts among playoff teams is only .091 — virtually nothing). So maybe the statheads have been missing something.

Tying this all together, I decided to use the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia to see which teams do (and do not) whiff a lot – compared to thier league average, as of today:

Based on the above, it appears that the only 2007 post-season team out there who is better than the Yankees, in terms of making contact, is the Angels. (Although the Mets are close.) Perhaps this “skill” will be an edge for the Yanks this post-season?

Here’s where the Yankees ranked, in the AL, for this stat, in the last few years:

Comments on Yanks Contact Skills To Help This Post-Season?

What good is comparing full season stats when the playoff rosters (and usage) will be different? Why should Josh Phelps or Miguel Cairo’s early season at bats be an indicator of post-season performance?

The team that pitches best and holds leads will most likely prove to be the winner.

Fair point Rich.
I wondered about that too, privately – meaning, if Giambi whiffs a lot, and his numbers impact the team totals, if Torre doesn’t play him in October, then the Yankees “skill” in the LDS, LCS, etc., would be better than during the regular season.

Well, if you believe that luck comes into play in a best of 5 or 7, then, having the ball bounce, or drop in, allows for luck to happen – lucky bounces, etc. Whereas, with the whiff, outside of a Mickey Owens, it’s hard to get lucky.